


Walk a Mile in Someone Else's Spots

by verboseDescription



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Power Swap fic, like four, there are pictures in this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-30
Updated: 2016-01-30
Packaged: 2018-05-17 07:10:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5859148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verboseDescription/pseuds/verboseDescription
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ladybug had fought a lot of villains, all with different talents and weaknesses. But this was going to be the first villain she fought in a leather jacket. One thing was for sure; she had no idea how Chat fought in these gloves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Walk a Mile in Someone Else's Spots

Sabrina sobbed, not bothering to try and disguise her tears. What was the point? She wasn’t loved like some of her other classmates, they wouldn’t come find her.

She couldn’t believe that it had bothered her so much. Being friends with Chloe, Sabrina had gotten very good at not responding to backhanded insults but apparently it had been just one too many. She wished she was a stronger person, like Marinette or was so full of self-confidence nothing could bring her down. Like Chloe.

But no, she was Sabrina. Just another soft spoken girl who was starting to wish she could switch at least just _one thing_ about herself with one of her classmates, who were all so much better then her.

Then, a small voice spoke in the back of her head.

_“So why don’t you?”_

She knows what the black butterfly floating near her phone means, but she accepts it anyways

 

Meanwhile, back at the classroom, Marinette was shouting at Chloe.

“She’s your _friend!”_ Marinette cried out, “The least you could do is act like you _care!”_

Adrien opened his mouth to interrupt her, but closed it. Truthfully he thought Chloe needed to reevaluate some—well, most—of her choices, but had been too polite to say anything. Too many people had been hurt by Chloe and he had originally hoped she’d see this on her own, but it was starting to seem more and more unlikely.

But it turned out Adrien didn’t need to interrupt, because someone already had.

A costumed figure strolled through the door and gave a small polite cough.

_Well,_ Adrien thought, _at least she has manners._

“Huh?” Chloe raised an eyebrow, “And who are you supposed to be?”

“I,” The girl said, trying her best to look very important, “am SwitchSwatch. And I would like something of yours.”

With that, the girl swiped something on her phone. As soon as she did, a glowing orange light appeared out of both her and Chloe. Chloe’s light flew towards SwitchSwatch, while the other girl’s slammed into Chloe.

As soon as the light hit her, SwitchSwatch laughed. She seemed more assertive, while Chloe immediately become shrank back into her seat. She looked like she was quivering.

“What did do you?” Chloe asked meekly, “I feel so… different…”

SwitchSwatch threw her head back and laughed again.

“I took your confidence and replaced it with my own weaker one,” She explained, “Now I have all the inner strength I need to defeat Chat Noir and Ladybug! I won’t even have to waste my time getting revenge on you; being like this is punishment enough.”

“Wait a minute,” Marinette gasped, “Sabrina, is this you? Why are you doing this? You’ve always been so nice!”

It was pretty obvious it was Sabrina, once Adrien thought about it. Her outfit looked a shockingly large amount like her normal school clothes, but if they had been melted together with Chloe’s. And now that SwitchSwatch had “swapped” Chloe’s confidence with her own, she looked even more like the other girl then before.

“Does it really matter _why_ I’m doing this?” SwitchSwatch scoffed, “You’re not going to stop me just by knowing I’ve always been jealous of my best friend!”

“I’m sorry!” Chloe whimpered, sinking further into her desk. If Adrien had been close by, he might have felt compelled to reassure her, but he was too busy sneaking out of the classroom. Someone had to stop the villain after all, and he had no way of knowing if Ladybug could make it.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re sorry!” SwitchSwatch rolled her eyes, “I’ve endured so much being your friend! I did whatever you asked! I planned your day, I did your homework… I even bought a birthday present for your darling Adrien so _you_ wouldn’t have to spend another second worrying about the boy you love!”

 

The good thing about SwitchSwatch getting Chloe’s confidence was that it made her just as short sighted as Chloe normally was. As soon as Nino realized Adrien managed to escape, he started to make his way towards the door as well, dragging Alya with him. If Marinette hadn’t left her seat, she could have been right behind them, but since she couldn’t, she tried to subtly gesture towards the door so her other classmates would get the idea.

As long as SwitchSwatch kept ranting, she wouldn’t notice everyone leaving, so Marinette tried to stall for time by thinking of other things that would get her mad.

“That isn’t all, either,” Marinette added, “She bribed you to be her friend. I remember the hat she let you borrow!”

“Oh _yes_ ,” SwitchSwatch cried out, “The hat! What kind of shallow person can’t even think of a way to make up with a friend that doesn’t involve meaningless presents?”

From the villain’s face, Marinette could tell her plan was working. SwitchSwatch was too invested in herself to notice what was going on in the classroom, just like Chloe. But of course, there was always something that could go wrong with a plan.

“Why hello there!” Chat Noir meowed, running into the room, “You’re looking a bit split down the middle.”

SwitchSwatch stopped talking, finally noticing how the room had been slowly losing students.

“ _Excuse me_ ,” She spat, “I was _talking_ about something. But if I’m not interesting enough to you then I guess I’ll just have to make _you_ the interesting ones! Now hmm…”

The villain looked around the classroom, her eyes finally settling on Rose.

“How would you like to have the strength of Kim, hmmm Rose?”

Before the girl could protest, SwitchSwatch tapped her phone once again and a soft pink light shot out of Rose, quickly replacing itself with the darker red from Kim. Rose backed away out of shock, bumping into a desk so hard she actually left a mark. Her expression of shock turned into one of terror.

“Did I do that…?”

Kim didn’t seem to be taking situation well either.

“All my hard earned muscles,” He moaned, “Gone in an instant.”

SwitchSwatch snickered at this.

“Now now,” Chat Noir scolded, “There’s no reason for all of this colorful chaos.”

SwitchSwatch rolled her eyes. Seeing that she was, once again, distracted, Marinette quickly ran out the door.

“Of _course_ there’s a reason for this!” SwitchSwatch stamped her foot in a very Chloe-like manner, “If you were _listening_ to me, then maybe you would have known that!”

Chat Noir resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he got out his baton.

“I’m sorry,” He said, “I was just a bit busy at the time.”

With that, he charged at SwitchSwatch, but she dodged by jumping onto the teacher’s desk.

“I see I should have swapped Kim’s strength with my own,” She mused, “All of this confidence must be clouding my judgement…”

Suddenly, Ladybug’s yoyo flew at her, and SwitchSwatch fell to the ground trying to dodge it.

“The thing that’s clouding your mind is hate!” Ladybug shouted from the door, “Why can’t we just talk about this? What’s so horrible about you that you want to be someone else?”

“Like _you_ would understand!” SwitchSwatch sniffed, standing back up, “You’re Ladybug; everyone loves you!”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t sympathize!”

“I can see all your stats on my phone, none of them are anything _near_ anything like what I’ve suffered! You wouldn’t understand,” SwitchSwatch looked back to her phone and raised an eyebrow, “Low Self Esteem and the feeling of living in someone else’s shadow.’ You too, huh? Maybe at least one of you can understand some of my anxieties…”

Chat Noir could feel the blood draining from his face. He looked to see if Ladybug had heard, but it looked like she was too far away. _Well, that’s a relief…_

“Chat! Don’t just stand there! We need to get her phone!” Ladybug shouted, tossing her yoyo once again.

“Sorry LB,” He apologized, “I just got distracted by your radiant beauty.”

SwitchSwatch and Ladybug both scoffed at that, his bad line apparently distracting enough for the yoyo to hit the villain on her head.

“Ow!” SwitchSwatch cried out. Then, she grinned.

“You’re making me very uncomfortable,” Chat told her, backing up.

“I apologize Ladybug,” SwitchSwatch said, ignoring Chat Noir’s comment, “Maybe you _could_ understand—after all, it’s not like you’re going to be Ladybug for much longer.”

Ladybug immediately went into a fighting stance, expecting some kind of attack at her miraculous. Instead, SwitchSwatch just tapped her phone and a red light shot out of her. Chat Noir’s eyes widened. He had a feeling he knew what was going on, seeing a similar darker color fly out from inside him.

Only seconds later, he was staring at a suspiciously familiar girl wearing what looked like his costume with a few minor tweaks.

“Ladybug?” He asked, gasping in surprise.

“Chat Noir?” She replied, sounding equally surprised.

“Looks like you’re in for an eventful day,” SwitchSwatch smirked.

She gave one last laugh, and then slammed Chat into Ladybug, making them both stumble and giving her almost enough time to get away.

“Oh no you don’t!” Ladybug cried out, reaching for her yoyo and then quickly trying to recover her mistake by whipping out Chat’s baton, “Come on, we can’t let her get away!”

“Of course my Lady,” Chat replied, grabbing the yoyo at his waist, wondering if he could master her swinging in mere moments, “Or should I say, my kitten?”

“You should not,” Ladybug said, twirling Chat’s baton in an attempt to get used to the weapon, but accidentally dropped it.

“I don’t even need to fight you two!” SwitchSwatch giggled, “You’re doing all the work for me!”

Ladybug growled at the comment; apparently, she didn’t like people thinking she wasn’t doing a good job.

“Cataclysm!” She screamed, running towards SwitchSwatch before Chat Noir could say anything to convince her otherwise. SwitchSwatch didn’t seem surprised at this, and just stepped out of the way, making Ladybug disintegrate the teacher’s desk.

“My Lady, please try and keep a clear head!” Chat cried out, “You’re normally the one with the plan! Don’t let her distract you!”

“But don’t you see?” SwitchSwatch laughed, “She can’t help it!”

With that, she made her exit. Chat knew he had no chance fighting her with Ladybug’s yoyo—it just wasn’t his weapon—so he had no choice.

“Lucky Charm!” Chat Noir cried out, and in a flash of light down dropped what looked like an exact replica of his baton, aside from the Ladybug print covering it. With a shrug, Chat put away the yoyo and whipped out his new baton, running to chase down SwitchSwatch with Ladybug following quickly behind. The villain wasn’t much faster than she would have been if she was a normal human, but she still moved with impressive agility.

“You’re being surprisingly smart,” SwitchSwatch sniffed, “I suppose I shouldn’t have underestimated Paris’ heroes.”

After a quick scan of the ground, the villain spotted a pigeon flying nearby and pressed a button on her phone. A gray light fled from the pigeon, making it quickly fall from the air as SwitchSwatch soar above the two heroes.

Ladybug dove after the pigeon and Chat Noir threw his baton hoping it’d hit their villain. Only one of them actually succeeded.

“So now what?” Ladybug asked, carefully putting the pigeon up in a tree.

“Now…,” Chat Noir began. His ring and her earings beeped, “Well, I guess that answers that.”

“I’ll meet you at the park in an hour,” Ladybug said. “We have a villain to catch, so be there on time. Who knows what kind of mayhem she’s causing? We don’t know if there’s a limit to what she can switch up. Imagine if she decided to switch someone’s arms with bird wings or something!”

Chat Noir couldn’t help himself. He giggled.

“Okay, fine. But imagine the bird.”

“What a terrifying world Paris would be,” Chat Noir replied. He didn’t want to imagine the bird.

“Which is why we need to find her as soon as possible,” Ladybug agreed.

And just like that, she was gone. Chat Noir sighed.

“I guess we should just hope she doesn’t go to the zoo.”

 

As it turned out, outfits weren’t the only thing Marinette had switched with Chat. As soon as she detransformed, a small black cat appeared and stared at her. He looked bored. She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Hey,” the cat said, “I’m Plagg. Got any cheese?”

 

Adrien was faced with the same situation. He had hoped that he’d at least have Plagg with him to make some silly joke about the situation, not the strange spotted creature gasping at him with a hint of worry and shock in her eyes, as well as… recognition?

“Hello,” Adrien said, “This must be horribly confusing for you. I know I don’t like it. I’m Adrien. And you are?”

“Tikki,” The creature whispered, “Oh, if only you knew...”

“The thing is,” Plagg began, “You’re not supposed to be my cat.”

 

“We chose the wielders of our miraculous very carefully, as you know,” Tikki explained, “There are certain qualities we look for that makes our heroes _our_ heroes. You’re not supposed to be a Ladybug. It’s not your fault, you just don’t have it in you.”

 

“Ladybug’s the only one who can purify akumas,” Plagg added, “My guy’s great, no doubt, even if he is a little too lovesick, but he’s not right for the job. There’s nothing wrong with it; he’s just different then you. Born different, fights different. That’s why you guys are having such a hard time with the wrong weapons.”

 

“Well, that and the fact you haven’t been trained with them,” Tikki said, “Ladybug didn’t become an incredible hero overnight and neither did you, I’m sure.”

“But I _need_ to be an incredible Ladybug,” Adrien replied, “There’s a villain on the loose! We can’t let Paris suffer!”

Despite his best efforts, Adrien imagined the bird.

 

“Well, too back!” Plagg said, “You can’t be one of my heroes! You don’t even have the right miraculous stone—which is really weird by the way, ask Tikki about that later.”

 

“You have to be yourself, Adrien,” Tikki told the boy, “And who you are isn’t a Ladybug. You’re Chat Noir, and you’re _good_ at that. So focus on that. Plagg chose you for a reason.”

“But I can’t be Chat Noir now!” Adrien protested.

 

“I don’t even have the right costume!” Marinette insisted.

“So be a Lady who looks like a Cat,” Plagg shrugged. It looked very comical on his small body, “Listen, just work with what you have. It’ll be like your Lucky Charms, only you’ve seen Chat fight _hundreds_ of times. So this?”

 

“It’ll be a piece of cake!” Tikki cheered, patting Adrien’s check affectionately, “You ready?”

Adrien nodded and held out his ring.

“Spots out!”

 

“Claws on!”

 

Ladybug had just gotten to the park when Chat showed up.

“I hope you weren’t waiting long, Lady Noir,” He said.

“You’re right on time, Catbug,” She replied. Neither of the nicknames were particularly funny or creative, but Chat Noir seemed delighted anyways.

“I have a plan,” He said.

“Let’s hear it.”

“It’s really incredibly simple; I don’t know why we didn’t think of it sooner,” Chat continued, “We need to swap weapons back.”

“Of course,” Ladybug agreed, shocked she hadn’t thought of it either, “My yoyo even gave you a staff. It was practically _telling_ us to do that from the beginning.”

“It was your Kwami who gave me the idea, truthfully,” Chat admitted, “We already have our own ways of fighting. There’s no need to change that, despite our costume change.”

“You’ll be a Chat Noir who looks like a Ladybug,” Ladybug said, remembering Plagg’s words. She handed him his staff, and he unclipped her yoyo from his waist to give to her.

“I’ve noticed something as well,” Ladybug added, “I uh, saw what SwitchSwatch was like before she took Chloe’s confidence. Afterwards, she didn’t just get more confident, she got more _conceited_ too.”

“I know what you mean,” Chat Noir nodded, “She let the students escape because she had got caught up in a rant.”

“Which was something a spoiled girl like Chloe might do,” Ladybug finished, “Which got me thinking about the sort of drawbacks SwitchSwatch’s powers might have.  We couldn’t just swap suits, we needed to switch powers and Kwamis as well.”

“Tikki mentioned that her being tied to my miraculous might even dampen my transformed powers,” Chat Noir added, “Because it’s not supposed to be _her_ miraculous.

“Did she? Huh,” Ladybug said. That was good to know, “That just proves my point, though. You can’t have one thing without giving up something else. She swapped flight powers with a pigeon before we lost her. Which might mean she’ll be drawn to the same places a pigeon would fly.”

“Like a park?” Chat suggested, looking impressed. Ladybug smiled. The fact she had chosen a park as their meeting place was a complete coincidence. She had just thought it’d be an easy place for both of them to find.

“Exactly,” Ladybug said, “Ready?”

“Ready,” Chat Noir confirmed, clutching his staff.

 

It didn’t take long for them to find SwitchSwatch after that. Coincidentally, she had been heading towards the park the same time Ladybug had suggested she might.

“Well, looks like you’re right as usual,” Chat Noir said once he spotted her in the distance, “I suppose that’s why you’re the Ladybug.”

“And here I thought it was because of how good I look in red,” Ladybug replied, giving her partner a playful grin. Chat laughed.

Despite the lighthearted banter, Ladybug was worried. Just walking around the streets of Paris had proved difficult in their new outfits. Ladybug wasn’t used to having Chat’s sharp nails, or a tail and kept tripping over her own feet. Chat still seemed uncomfortable in her costume. He probably wasn’t used to wearing a bodysuit like Ladybug’s—his outfit had always been something that could pass for normal clothes in the right circumstance, like a punk rock concert, but her bugsuit was clearly made for the gymnastic routine of a hero.

His boots a lot thicker then what she was used to too, but she was getting used to that.

“Well,” Ladybug said, “I guess it’s time to finish this.”

And then the trees screamed.

 

Yes, they were literally screaming. Chat Noir had no idea _what_ they were screaming about, but considering everything that had happened in the past hour or so, he really couldn’t blame them. In all honestly, he was envious; he wanted to scream too.

“Like my new addition to the park?” SwitchSwatch asked, descending onto the heroes in such a villainous fashion Chat was surprised there was no sudden cloud of mist to set the mood.

“What did you do?” Ladybug scowled.

“Oh, nothing much,” SwitchSwatch shrugged, “I just wanted to get everyone to stop screaming at me, so I put their voices all together. I mean, what’s the point of being able to speak if you won’t say good things about _me?”_

“Singing?” Chat Noir suggested. Ladybug raised an eyebrow at him, but hey, he was surrounded by trees that were _literally screaming_ facing a villain that could change his entire personality _._ He was a bit too stressed to make a better joke.

“But what good is singing if they aren’t singing my praises?” SwitchSwatch sighed. She didn’t seem particularly worried, which was understandable. Chat wouldn’t really see anything to be afraid of either, if he was her.

“It doesn’t matter if they aren’t singing your praises,” Ladybug shouted up at the girl, “They’re real people and they deserve to have their voices heard!”

“Whatever,” SwitchSwatch scoffed, “All I need to do now is get your miraculous’s and I’m free to do whatever I want! And in your current conditions, can you really say you can stop me?”

“Yes!” Ladybug replied, “It doesn’t matter what you do to us, we’re the heroes of Paris! We _will_ defeat you, no matter what!”

With that, she unfurled her yoyo, jumping with enough force to kick SwitchSwatch in her very surprised face, making her drop her phone. Immediately, Chat Noir sprang into action, catching the phone in his hand. To his surprise, SwitchSwatch simply rolled her eyes.

“Go ahead,” She said, “Just try it.”

Chat Noir slammed the phone to the ground. It didn’t break. He slammed it under his foot, but there wasn’t even a scratch.

“Don’t you think I’d know better than to just myself be destroyed so easily?” SwitchSwatch continued, walking towards Chat, “I made sure to swap my phone’s durability with something _much_ stronger.”

“Like what, a Nokia?” Chat asked and was promptly thrown into a tree.

“Sorry about that,” The tree said.

“It’s cool,” Chat replied, “Could you maybe stop screaming though?”

“I mean, it’s _possible,”_ The tree admitted, which was a pretty solid “no.”

“Don’t you see?” SwitchSwatch chuckled, ignoring Chat Noir’s conversation with a local plant, “There’s no way you two can beat me. I have everything I need to stop you, and even if I don’t, I can always take what I need later!”

“But it’s not _your_ power,” Ladybug said, “Birds spend their whole lives flying you can’t just jump into the air and expect to soar just as well as they can! And no matter how confident someone may appear to be, taking theirs isn’t a guarantee your problems will go away.”

“Many people look more confident than they actually are,” Chat Noir agreed, walking back towards the fight. He winced. Whoever SwitchSwatch had swapped strengths with was _really_ strong.

“So what?” SwitchSwatch scowled, “It doesn’t matter! If they fake their confidence, I’ll just find someone else who doesn’t! I _will_ be unbeatable. I _will_ be perfect. Just as soon as I get your miraculous!”

She lunged at Ladybug who responded not by dodging, but by throwing her yoyo over to Chat.

“Give me your miraculous!” SwitchSwatch screamed, “Or I’ll tear them out of your ears myself!”

Ladybug only looked slightly worried at this threat, which Chat Noir felt was incredibly impressive.

“Lucky Charm!” He shouted. SwitchSwatch turned towards him just as a spotted diamond dropped into his hand.

“Now I may not know much about minerals,” Chat said, “But I’m sure that diamonds aren’t supposed to look like that.”

To be fair, all he knew about diamonds were that they were supposedly unbreakable and incredibly strong. Strong enough to break a phone, at least.

“Are you really going forward with such ridiculousness?” SwitchSwatch sniffed, “Do you want to me to take something else from you? Like your ridiculous puns? Because I can!”

“As great as that would be, I’m afraid you won’t have a chance,” Ladybug replied, grabbing SwitchSwatch’s phone and tossing it to Chat Noir, who immediately slammed the diamond on it.

“What do I do now?” He asked, alternating between staring at the yoyo and the butterfly flying away, feeling incredibly useless.

“Touch the middle!” Ladybug replied, pushing their enemy off of her and running towards him, “Then spin it. You’ve seen me do it a million times!”

Chat Noir complied, breathing a sigh of relief when it worked. Ladybug smiled at him, and then at the butterfly.

“Bye Bye little butterfly,” She said, just as she always did.

“And now it’s time for Miraculous Ladybug,” Chat Noir said, holding up the diamond, “Or do would the real Ladybug like to do it?”

“I don’t think I can,” Ladybug replied, “I’m afraid it’s your responsibility for now.”

“Miraculous Chat Noir!” Chat yelled, tossing the diamond in the air. Ladybug gave a small snort.

“Well, close enough, I suppose,” She said as her costume went back to the red and black spots it should have been all along.

Chat smiled and her and gave her a fistbump. He opened his mouth to speak, but his ring beeped at him.

“I guess it’s time for you to go now,” Ladybug said, “Good job today. I think you adapted to this situation better than I did.”

“Not at all,” Chat Noir replied. He stood there for a second, unsure of what to do. He remembered how Tikki had looked at him, and what she had said. She knew him. Which meant Ladybug did too. They might even be in the same class for all he knew!

Tikki had looked distressed when they meant, but the reason seemed to be mainly because she couldn’t tell him who Ladybug was and the situation at hand. Ladybug probably liked him. They were probably friends. All he had to do to find out was ask.

“See you later, I guess,” He said. Ladybug nodded.

And just like that, they were gone.

 

 

“But why did _Chat_ get to have such simple Lucky Charms?” Marinette whined, “I’ve been a Ladybug for like, forever! And it’s never been that easy for me!”

“That’s the thing, Marinette,” Tikki laughed, “He’s not a Ladybug, he’s Chat Noir!”

“No fair!” Marinette said, but she didn’t seem too upset, “Who was he, by the way? Anyone I know?”

“Yes,” Tikki replied honestly, “I think you should tell him who you are, Marinette. I know I’ve been telling you not to say anything to anyone, but I think everything will turn out alright once you do.”

“That kitty doesn’t really want to know who I am,” Marinette scoffed, “Besides, how do I know you aren’t just saying this because you want to see Plagg?”

“Plagg is my friend, but he’s certainly not worth losing my _job_ over,” Tikki rolled her eyes. She sat down on Marinette’s lap, “And trust me on this: you’re going to want to know who Chat is.”

Marinette tried to laugh it off, but something about Kwami’s stern expression stopped her. Normally, Tikki looked too cute to make Marinette want to be serious, but this wasn’t one of those times.

“Okay,” Marinette said, “I’ll talk to him. Later.”

 

Miles away, a boy scolded himself for not being able to do the same thing.

Both kids looked at their phones, trying to think of something to take their minds off of the subject.

_I wonder if Sabrina is okay?_ They thought.

**Author's Note:**

> This title probably would have been better used for a bodyswap, so I apologize for that. I also apologize for not giving Adrien earrings, I'm sure we all would have liked to see that. You can come scold me about it on my tumblr, ofdreamsanddoodles  
> I didn't want to completely disregard Sabrina, so I had them talk to her at the end. I'd like to add that my friend and I have a headcanon that she's probably a scholarship student, just in case that makes her envy more understandable or something  
> Fic inspired by: http://wonderfulworldofmoi.tumblr.com/post/135991308829/imagine-the-chaos-if-they-actually-switched


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